We’re safely on a new server. Let the party begin!

(Melissa’s already cracked open another bottle…hehehe )

We’ve been together for a while now and to begin with things were great. But then cracks started to show and this past week I think we got beyond the point of no return. There were times when we stopped communicating altogether.

It’s over. I think me and my webhost need to part ways. I’ve already got my eye on another one, and I think we’d get along great. It’s more reliable, it’s faster, and it’s even carbon neutral.

I’m going to start the switch today….so keep your eyes on Peachy Hollow for much faster loading speeds in a couple of days about a week (and also more regular posting as I should be able to get online to do it!!)

*edit* we’re on our way to a new server, woot! And now that that’s all sorted I can get back to going through all the Scotland pics

For some reason, comments are taking AGES to post and in some cases the server is timing out so commenters get a “problem loading page” error message instead of seeing their comment posted. Annoying. But even though it looks like nothing happens, the comments do get here onto the relevant page.

I’ve contacted my web people about this who *insist* that everything is fine, but clearly it’s not. It might be something to do with the database- maybe it refreshes *all* the comments after a new one is posted, and given that there are now over 1000 comments here at PH, it might be a strain on the server. I’ll have a good google search and see if there’s anything I can do.

In the meantime, sorry

**edit** it might be to do with blog pings which is my blog notifying other servers to tell them a new post has been made…if one of them is having a bad day then it can mess things up here. More info. I’ll try to get this sorted out tonight.

Oddness. Utter. Strange. Oddness. Moments ago, the base of the previous entry noted that there were three whole comments, but I COULD NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME get them to show up on the page, even though my "site dashboard" said that they were published. Instead, there appeared a second version of my sidebar displayed at the bottom of the page, and badly at that. GAH! But then the comments suddenly reappeared when I posted a reply. Hello??

What with the initial comment posting problems a while back, then the all-of-a-sudden loss of access to my design templates a few days ago, and now this, it may just well be the proverbial straw that has broken the proverbial camel's proverbial back. I feel a BLOGGING PLATFORM DEFECTION may be in order *harumph*.

So I'm now very seriously considering breaking up with the bug-ridden Movable Type and moving onto Wordpress. I get the impression it's far less needy and high maintenance to get along with. And I need to act soon to preserve what precious hair remains on my head.

I'm not kidding, I swear to you I did. Now I'm not saying that I sat there in the waiting area lighting up a joint and toked happily for half an hour until my number was called, but I may as well have been doing that. I must have passively partaken of at least a joint an a half from the man next to me, I should also point out that this man was next to me for all of about ten minutes, making it more like a hit from a bong. This man seemed to take about a whole hour just to fill in the application form (yes, I was there throughout, but more about that later), he was THAT WASTED. Yes, the DMV who have the power to revoke our road use privileges for unsafe driving indeed gave this man who was skunked up to his eyeballs an application for a driving license, and allowed him to proceed through the whole application process to get approval for a permit. The fact that he might on average not actually be fit to drive didn't seemed to be an important factor. I was beginning to wonder who was on the drugs here. At least one DMV worker appeared slightly more with it. She had to take one of the other applicants aside to clarify (rather loudly, as if trying to get the point over more clearly) why one of the answers on his written test was incorrect, and that just because he and his friends usually felt fine after after a couple of beers and that said friends had drunk driven it many times without it being a problem (his justification), what he was in fact doing was in fact not legal. Obviously he boobed on a couple of other answers too as she made him take the written test again.

Now the DMV is a place that I have to visit on quite a regular occasion. Although I've been more or less 'living' out here in the US now for just over a year, my official residence is still back in the Glorious Mother Country, otherwise known as Mighty England. And I use the term 'living' in a loose sense, as I still spend about three or four months of the year back at home, and so my living place is just where I spend most of my living time. Until SoonToBeMrNin and I become one this summer, the maximum I can stay out in the US on any one visit is 90 days. The visa that they give me allows me to do a lot of things, like visit my fiancé, travel around, take fin camping trips, spend all my money, absorb American culture, eat lots of food, watch American TV and all great things like that. It's fabulous! Heck, it even allows me to drive a car out here on my British license! But then what's with all the visits to the DMV? I hear you ask…

Well, last Spring after feeling the woes of my disability known to others as Not Having A Car, I became the proud owner of a sparkling silver Vespa ET4 scooter. OK, she doesn't sparkle really, but she's beautiful, and shiney and her name is 'Pretty Little' and she's brought me endless happiness, not to mention mobility beyond a two mile radius around my 'hood. Now, although I can drive out here legally, California has a special law that anyone driving a two-wheeled vehicle over 150cc engine size needs to have a California motorcycle license. Pretty Little is actually officially a 149cc, but because they round numbers up and she has a badge on here that says "ET4 150", for all intents and purposes, she's in that category called MOTORCYCLE. Not that she minds, it makes her feel burly and important. But because of the finity of my immigration documents, I can only get issued with a motorcycle permit for the same duration as my visa. Which means that every time I get issued a new visa, I have to make a little trip down to my local DMV to get the dang thing reissued.

Today's visit was slightly longer than usual, it was 3 hours and 57 minutes. I timed it. This was because when I went there on my last visit to take my driver's test (yes, I went there twice on my last visit!) I was told that I couldn't take my test because there needed to be at least 60 days left on my visa for me to be able to do it (huh???), and they asked me could I come back next time. So here I am again, i.e. next time, but now they tell me that I can't even drive as I didn't take my test within 12 months of my initial permit issue. I will spare you the details of our discussion, but after twenty minutes of going round in circles, they did indeed acknowledge from their computer screen that I had attempted to take the test back in April. But even so, through no fault of my own which they even admitted to, I was in the position where I would have to take the written test again, make that *two* tests, one for the regular license, one for the motorcyle. So after reluctantly parting with my $30 for the privilege of taking said tests, I wasn't about to fail them, so embarked on reading the driving manuals cover to cover so that at least if I failed it was through my own stupidity rather than through lack of revision.

One of the things I dislike about the DMV handbook, aside from the fact that it's very, very, VERY l o n g, is the fact that it's unecessarily confusing. Take this section for example, taken straight from the DMV handbook, regarding seatbelts. Let's take a look at what it says on this matter:

Did you get that? All of it? Are you sure? Let's look in more detail:

So you got that right? It says that everyone over the age of 16 or 60lb must be wearing a seatbelt, that's the law. Everything will be fine and dandy and completely law abiding so long as all people in the car over the age of 16 are wearing seatbelts. So then…

WHY IN THE WORLD ARE THEY SAYING THE DRIVER WOULD GET A TICKET FOR A PASSENGER UNDER 16 YEARS OLD NOT WEARING A SEATBELT if according to the previous sentence it's perfectly LEGAL for them to ride without one if they're under 60lb??? Would it not be easier to just say "Everyone should wear a seatbelt, and/or for those under 16/60lb use an appropriate and approved booster seat or child seat with restraining mechanism. Failure to comply will result in being issued with a ticket"? DOES THAT NOT MAKE MORE SENSE?? And is that not EASIER TO UNDERSTAND??? I even looked for further clarification on this under 16 year old and seatbelt issue, but this was the only bit I could find…

Forgive me if I'm being stupid here, but I don't think it's very clear.

 Anyway, two and a half hours of revision later (did I mention those handbooks are l o n g???), I finally took the tests. And I passed both, HURRAH!!! Two wrong answers on each test, but that was fine as I was allowed to get a total of eight answers wrong, so I practically felt like a valedictorian. And thank god I put makeup on and washed my hair this morning as I had to have my picture taken again.

Eventually I made it out of the DMV a little after 4pm, and there was little point going anywhere else that afternoon, so I started to walk the walk back home. Now the local DMV isn't exactly in the nicest part of town (in case you hadn't already guessed from their client profile), so my heart sa

nk a little when I saw a group of young male teens wearing hoodies walking toward me on the same side of the street. Not only is that slightly intimidating anyway for any solo female, but I'm still getting used to reading American body language (yes, it's different from reading English people), so it was kind of doubley intimidating for me. But as I was walking past, I heard a sound that I didn't expect….it sounded like one of them blew me a kiss, EH?!! I wasn't entirely sure of that, and wasn't quite sure quite how to react if that had indeed been the case, so I just put my head down and carried on walking, feeling a bit mystified. But then a couple of minutes later a truck went by and beeped. There were no other cars on the road, and no other people on the street, so was he beeping at me??? Hoo hooo! I think he was. Now that makes a change from the last few weeks. I couldn't help but feel slightly pleased…although of course the feminist in me wanted to scream him deaf for violating my personal rights, and report him to the DMV for illiegal use of his horn (no pun intented).

It’s true, for every pair of TOMS shoes that you buy, they give an equivalent pair to a street child in South America. Last year they gave away 8000 pairs of shoes. Please support this charity if you can! The shes are actually really comfortable too- I bought a pair last summer and I’ve been living in them ever since.